The ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Conference may be filled with big names and boisterous crowds, but it’s in the small breakout rooms where activists and leaders are plotting how to undo what the Obama administration has done.

Unbeknown to California officials, oil producers in Kern County have been disposing of chemical-laden wastewater in hundreds of unlined trenches in the ground without proper permits, according to an inventory that regional water officials completed this week.

Koda, the 10-year-old male polar bear at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, emerges from a cubbyhole atop the 6,000-square-foot enclosure he shares with 14-year-old Kobe. He steps out to a nearby ledge, his head bobbing and swinging from side to side. He then backs into the cubbyhole, head still...

On a summer day in 1885, three Hawaiian princes surfed at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River on crudely constructed boards made from coastal redwoods, bringing the sport to the North American mainland.

Rajendra Pachauri, who supervised work on the two most detailed studies of climate change ever completed, stepped down as head of the United Nations panel studying the science after allegations he sexually harassed a colleague.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil rights lawsuit on Thursday against the Alamance County sheriff, accusing him of fostering a climate of discrimination against Latinos for years. | 12/21/12 07:20:20 By - Anne Blythe

An Texas woman whose criminal record includes prison time for solicitation of murder was in the Parker County Jail on Wednesday night, accused of stealing outdoor Christmas decorations that she apparently then hung on other houses as part of a holiday-lighting business, authorities said Wednesday. | 12/20/12 14:55:08 By - Bill Hanna

The Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, will be put on trial for his life, the Army announced Wednesday. | 12/20/12 04:28:57 By - Christian Hill

Though five years have passed since North Carolinas attorney general exonerated three former Duke University lacrosse players of phony rape allegations, the lawsuits they filed against the prosecutor, the city of Durham, its top administrators and law enforcement officers remain open in federal court. | 12/18/12 07:10:56 By - Anne Blythe

An epic family murder saga ended Monday when Narcy Novack, wife of Fontainebleau hotel heir Ben Novack Jr., was sentenced to life in prison.
Three years after she and her brother Cristobal planned and helped execute Ben Novack and his mother Bernice, the convicted killers, who had remained loyal to each other throughout the trial, made it clear their family ties would not extend to prison. Cristobal also was sentenced to life in prison Monday. | 12/17/12 13:32:45 By - Julie K. Brown

The 18-year-old farm worker charged with assaulting Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer claims he never touched the high-profile Marine veteran and puts the blame on an unidentified young woman. | 12/16/12 23:15:57 By - Bill Estep

An emotional President Barack Obama Friday decried what he called the "heinous crime" in Connecticut, saying "our hearts are broken" and calling for efforts to stem the tide of violence. | 12/14/12 16:03:33 By - Lesley Clark

Statement by the president on school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller. I offered Governor Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation, and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families. | 12/14/12 16:03:21 By -

A Biloxi Community Court judge has sentenced a 78-year-old woman to 100 hours of community service for the hoarding of cats in a case believed to be unprecedented. | 12/12/12 13:14:31 By - Robin Fitzgerald

In a bid to expand its surveillance network, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police want to connect to private businesses cameras, which would allow officers to monitor malls, gas stations and banks across the county. | 12/11/12 12:19:56 By - Cleve R. Wootson Jr

During his last days of freedom, before he admitted to killing Anchorage teenager Samantha Koenig and at least seven other people, Israel Keyes was at his sister's Texas wedding, crying and ranting at one point about how he did not believe in God. | 12/07/12 06:39:28 By - Casey Grove

The shadowy world of illicit trade with Iran could come into sharper focus with a North Charleston, S.C., businessman’s guilty plea to charges surrounding illegal exports to the Middle Eastern country. | 12/06/12 16:12:34 By - By Michael Doyle

Confessed serial killer Israel Keyes committed suicide late Saturday or early Sunday by slitting one of his wrists with a blade from a disposable razor and tying a sheet tight around his neck, Alaska State Troopers revealed Wednesday.

It's still unclear which action, alone or in combination, led to his death, troopers said. | 12/06/12 06:59:01 By - Casey Grove

During his four years with the Chiefs, linebacker Jovan Belcher, along with his teammates, attended dozens of NFL-sponsored meetings devoted to personal issues outside of football. | 12/05/12 07:20:55 By - Randy Covitz

Seconds after fatally shooting his longtime girlfriend, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher leaned over her in their master bathroom, said he was sorry and kissed her on the forehead. | 12/04/12 07:08:08 By - Christine Vendel

The bizarre story of suspected serial killer Israel Keyes took new twists Monday when the FBI revealed that he traveled all over the country and buried caches of weapons and other items for use in future crimes, including two caches -- one in Eagle River -- that the FBI was able to recover. | 12/04/12 06:49:26 By - Lisa Demer

In March 2011, state child protection investigators took 14-year-old Marie from her mother, Doris Freyre, claiming Freyres own disabilities made it almost impossible for her to care for Marie, who suffered from seizures and severe cerebral palsy. A Tampa, Florida, judge signed an order that Marie be returned to her mother, with in-home nursing care around the clock. Child welfare workers ignored the order completely. | 12/03/12 13:22:56 By - Carol Marbin Miller

Israel Keyes, accused in the kidnapping and killing of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, was found dead Sunday morning in an apparent jail suicide, and he is suspected in at least seven other deaths outside Alaska, authorities said. | 12/03/12 08:08:04 By - Lisa Demer

Without an expert witness, Kansas City jurors might not understand how someone could consent to some extreme sadomasochistic behavior, a lawyer told a federal judge Thursday. | 11/30/12 12:22:10 By - Mark Morris

Penn State now has implemented more than half of the 119 recommendations that former FBI director Louis Freeh made to the university to improve its safety and governance in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. | 11/29/12 20:18:05 By - Mike Dawson

With his legal defense fund teetering at less than $15,000, accused murderer George Zimmerman announced a new strategy to drum up donations: signed thank-you cards. | 11/29/12 06:56:33 By - Frances Robles

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence for a Miami man who killed a 5-year-old girl and threw her into the Everglades to be eaten by alligators. | 11/15/12 14:45:36 By - David Ovalle

This isn't your old-school game of cops and robbers. Weatherford police are warning that a new version of this game is concerning some residents and could lead to dangerous confrontations. | 11/15/12 14:10:11 By - Deanna Boyd

An eight-day hearing for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales wrapped up Tuesday with an Army prosecutor saying Bales should face the death penalty for committing "the worst, most despicable crimes a human being can commit, murdering children in their own homes." | 11/14/12 07:39:04 By - Adam Ashton

Defense attorneys for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales mined contradictory statements from Afghan villagers over the past three nights to suggest that more than one American soldier could have been involved in a March massacre that claimed the lives of 16 Afghan civilians. | 11/12/12 14:22:30 By - Adam Ashton

Photos of children with marijuana cigarettes in their mouths have led to charges against two Leslie County residents, and more charges are likely, the investigating officer said Monday | 11/12/12 14:06:22 By - Bill Estep

I was at home on Sunday morning, and I started reading, said the young Penn State alumnus. It really came as a shock. I didnt know whether to believe it or not. | 11/09/12 07:32:44 By - Matt Carroll

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales leaders in his Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade gave him an especially demanding assignment in Afghanistan last winter because they believed he was among their best soldiers, his company first sergeant said in court today. | 11/07/12 13:32:36 By - Adam Ashton

James Phillip Edwards, 63, whom prosecutors have described as off the charts and a serial predator of girls as young as 4 years of age, has written that he wants to lead a pro-pedophile movement from prison, according to court records. | 11/07/12 12:51:19 By - Mark Morris

Deliberately and methodically, a Fresno meat-processing plant employee shot four of his co-workers -- two fatally -- before killing himself Tuesday morning. | 11/07/12 12:39:39 By - Jim Guy and John Sheehan

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier was arraigned this morning on charges stemming from what the attorney general said was a cover-up by senior university leaders to hide abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky. | 11/07/12 12:00:06 By - Mike Dawson

One person is dead and three are in critical condition, including the gunman, after a workplace shooting Tuesday morning in central Fresno.
Gunfire broke out about 8:27 a.m. at Valley Protein, formerly known as Apple Valley Farms, a poultry processing plant on Hedges Avenue just east of Blackstone Avenue. | 11/06/12 14:30:48 By - Jim Guy

A South Florida money-laundering network secretly transferred more than $30 million in illegal Medicare profits through a remittance firm with shell companies in not only Canada and Trinidad, but also in Mexico, according to court records filed Monday. | 11/06/12 12:07:34 By - Jay Weaver

A South Florida money-laundering network secretly transferred more than $30 million in illegal Medicare profits through a remittance firm with shell companies in not only Canada and Trinidad, but also in Mexico, according to court records filed Monday. | 11/06/12 06:51:09 By - Jay Weaver

During the height of the tourist season two years ago, a Philadelphia TV weatherman flew down to Miami Beach for a little fun in the sun.
At the Delano Hotel, John Bolaris was approached by a couple of the Beachs finest bar girls. Then they lured the liquored-up Bolaris to a Russian-style nightclub called Caviar Bar on Washington Avenue. Over the next two nights, he signed American Express charge slips for more than $43,000, picking up the tab for extravagantly overpriced Dom Perignon, Beluga caviar and other items, including $2,480 for a modernistic painting of a woman that had been hanging in the bar. | 11/05/12 18:51:38 By - Jay Weaver

Its a hot Internet business: Get mugshots for free from government websites, put them on your own websites and then demand money when irate people plead to have their photos removed. | 11/05/12 13:47:18 By - John Dorschner

Former Penn State president Graham Spanier was indicted today on charges he lied to the grand jury investigating abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky and tried to block authorities investigation of him as part of a cover-up. | 11/02/12 07:31:35 By - Mike Dawson

As many as 657,000 S.C. businesses had their tax information stolen in the massive security breach at the state Department of Revenue that also claimed the records of up to 3.6 million people, Gov. Nikki Haley said Wednesday. | 11/01/12 12:45:01 By - Andrew Shain

A former Scoutmaster who admitted this week to molesting numerous Boy Scouts in the Fayetteville area nearly four decades ago worked for years in the preschool center at Charlottes Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church, the senior minister there said Friday. | 10/26/12 16:16:23 By - Steve Lyttle

Four of Washington state's Benton County's top law enforcers joked and laughed while taking time Wednesday to read a book about police officers to preschoolers at Benton Franklin Head Start in Richland, but their visit was about a serious subject.The longtime cops and prosecutor spoke out about the lack of funding for quality early childhood education programs and how investing in kids can reduce crime and save money | 10/25/12 15:23:57 By - Paula Horton

UNC-Chapel Hill physics professor Paul Frampton may be in an Argentine prison cell awaiting trial on charges of trying to smuggle two kilograms of cocaine out of the country, but that hasn't stopped him from asking for a raise. | 10/23/12 07:11:28 By - Jay Price

A 22-year-old man has accused his former Rutherford County church of holding him for four months against his will while he was physically and emotionally abused because he is gay. | 10/22/12 07:24:36 By - Michael Gordon

Two South Florida Muslim clerics  a father and son separated by more than 50 years in age  are struggling to persuade a Miami federal judge to allow their lawyers to travel to Pakistan to question alleged Taliban sympathizers who might help their defense against terrorism charges. | 10/22/12 07:01:36 By - Jay Weaver

Lawyers in the George Zimmerman murder trial are expected to face off in court Friday over whether to allow subpoenas of Trayvon Martins school and social media records to proceed. | 10/19/12 11:50:24 By - Frances Robles

Convicted killer Steven Lawayne Nelson is a violent psychopath who will continue to be a danger to society, even behind bars, an expert witness testified Monday in the punishment phase of Nelson's capital murder trial. | 10/16/12 11:21:11 By - Dianna Hunt

For the first time since he was taken into custody seven months ago, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is back at Joint Base Lewis-McChord awaiting a pretrial hearing on charges that he murdered 16 Afghan civilians during his deployment with a local Stryker brigade. | 10/16/12 07:28:47 By - Adam Ashton

Peter Friesema, a Colorado hockey referee who officiated a UAA tournament over the weekend, was checking in at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport with a traveling companion late Saturday night. He pointed out that the Alaska Airlines ticket agent had put his sticker on his friend's luggage. | 10/15/12 06:47:46 By - Lisa Demer and Richard Mauer

A 17-year-old Central-Phenix City student asked to leave Peachtree Mall over the length of her shorts claims she was unfairly singled out and that Columbus police overreacted Saturday night by taking her to jail in shackles. | 10/09/12 13:28:15 By - Alan Riquelmy and Jim Mustian

The young men who testified that Jerry Sandusky sexually abused them finally will have the chance this week to say exactly how the abuse by the man they trusted has affected them. | 10/08/12 07:30:29 By - Mike Dawson

Johnny Ramsey, the 79-year-old Korean War veteran who collected and sold junk to pay for medications for his ailing wife, said just minutes before court Thursday evening: If I have to go to jail, I guess I am ready. | 10/05/12 13:24:10 By - Andre Dys

With a new governor in office, a former Manson family member serving a life term at California Mens Colony has his best chance at freedom after a parole board recommended his release Thursday. | 10/05/12 07:03:51 By - Patrick S. Pemberton

Mike McQueary, a star witness in the Jerry Sandusky case and former Penn State assistant football coach, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Penn State today and is seeking millions of dollars in damages. | 10/02/12 16:21:49 By - Mike Dawson

An iconic photograph of a young Trayvon Martin in his Bulldogs football uniform, staring stone-faced into the camera, has been published in print and online around the world. | 10/02/12 07:05:39 By - Frances Robles

Defense lawyers in the USS Cole bombing case are asking a military judge to delay by three months their next Guantánamo hearing, to give torture experts time to examine the alleged mastermind who was waterboarded by the CIA. | 09/27/12 07:01:00 By - Carol Rosenberg

Trayvon Martin grabbed his killers gun just moments before he died and uttered a profanity-laced threat. In a desperate life-or-death struggle, George Zimmerman clutched Trayvons wrist, broke his grip on the semi-automatic firearm and shot him once in the chest. | 09/21/12 07:12:39 By - Frances Robles

Detailed forensics reports in the Trayvon Martin killing show the victims DNA wasnt on the gun that killed him and very little of it landed on the shooters clothes, according to evidence released Wednesday. | 09/19/12 12:41:49 By - Frances Robles

The Jeffrey MacDonald case has pulled an unusual book critic into its web of conspiracy theorists and strong camps of opinions.
Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor, has posted a complimentary review of Errol Morris new book about the case, A Wilderness of Error, on her Facebook page. | 09/18/12 13:17:50 By - Anne Blythe

On the day that Jennifer Wright visited Shane McClelland at his home and helped save two children, McClelland may not have been worried about the cop confronting him. As one of three investigators working in the Internet Crimes Against Children task force in Wichita, Wright is part of a growing segment of law enforcement: detectives who combine acting with street smarts and computer skills to save children from cyber-predators. | 09/12/12 19:07:34 By - Roy Wenzl

A Washington District Court judge answered the door of his Olympia home Monday night and was met by a man who thew liquid into his face, causing skin irritation that was treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. | 09/12/12 18:21:01 By - Jeremy Pawloski

After an Overland Park, Kansas couple were indicted, accused of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and paying them less than other employees, federal authorities said Tuesday that they would seek to seize the couples two hotels. | 09/12/12 07:15:41 By - Laura Bauer

The federal air marshal who took George Zimmerman in after he shot Trayvon Martin has written a book about his controversial friend, and appeared on a national TV show Tuesday to say Zimmerman was a peaceful, loving  and innocent  man. | 09/12/12 07:03:37 By - Frances Robles

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier has been charged with 25 counts alleging he coerced seven teenage girls into sending him nude photographs while he was deployed in Afghanistan. | 09/11/12 17:27:32 By - Stacia Glenn

George Zimmermans defense lawyers will subpoena Facebook, Twitter and Miami-Dade schools in a widespread pursuit of clues to suggest that Trayvon Martin could have thrown the first punch on the night he was killed, a sign that attorneys are going into attack mode in preparation for their case. | 09/10/12 07:14:10 By - Frances Robles

A Miami-Dade police officer routinely stopped women drivers for no reason so he could have sexually suggestive conversations  including asking to see the scars on a Miami Beach bartenders surgically enhanced breasts  and then let the women go without issuing any citations, federal authorities say. | 09/06/12 14:52:12 By - Jay Weaver

Convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky still maintains his innocence and his family still supports him, his attorney said Wednesday. Dottie is still 100 percent supportive of him, Joe Amendola said of Sanduskys wife. | 09/06/12 13:41:15 By - Mike Dawson

A veteran judge with broad experience and a reputation for being tough on both lawyers and defendants has been assigned to take over George Zimmermans murder trial. | 08/31/12 07:21:32 By - Frances Robles

George Zimmermans attorneys got a second judge kicked off his murder trial Wednesday, when the Fifth District Court of Appeal ordered the sitting jurist to step down from the controversial case. | 08/30/12 07:08:27 By - Frances Robles

A federal jury on Monday convicted North Carolina poultry processor House of Raeford Farms of 10 counts of violating the Clean Water Act. But the company was found not guilty on four other counts, and the plant manager was cleared of wrong-doing. | 08/21/12 07:21:18 By - Franco Ordoñez

A Chinese court on Monday handed down a suspended death sentence for Gu Kailai, the wife of fallen Chinese politician Bo Xilai. Its customary in Chinese law for suspended death sentences to be converted to lengthy prison terms after two years. | 08/19/12 23:49:08 By - By Tom Lasseter

Jim Donnan, a former N.C. State University quarterback in the 1960s and a head football coach at two colleges, has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of conducting an $80 million Ponzi scheme that preyed on college coaches, former players and big-time athletics boosters. | 08/17/12 13:47:12 By - Anne Blythe

Civil libertarians are shuddering at the latest police trend involving the use of cameras to check license plates. Police in Fort Worth, Arlington, Grapevine and a growing number of other cities are using automatic camera systems to take photographs of passing vehicles' license plates. The cameras are typically mounted on a patrol car's light bars and can easily take pictures of license plates at a distance of 50 feet or more -- and many systems can shoot hundreds of photographs per hour. | 08/17/12 12:59:51 By - Gordon Dickson

Former Kennedale High School teacher Brittni Colleps was found guilty this morning of having multiple sexual encounters with five of her students. Jurors took less than an hour to convict Colleps on 16 counts of improper relationship between an educator and student. The 28-year-old mother of three faces probation to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 on each of the counts. | 08/17/12 12:34:29 By - Deanna Boyd

A drug dealer who kept business cards offering "bulk discounts" and home delivery will serve a year in prison for selling marijuana and having two other drugs without a prescription. | 08/16/12 12:24:03 By - Caleb Hutton

Earlier this year when New Hampshire became the 49th state to pass legislation adopting a prescription drug monitoring program, Missouri found itself as the lone holdout. | 08/15/12 12:46:19 By - Jason Hancock

The first text message that "Aaron" received from his English teacher seemed innocent enough. "Hey ... It's Coach Colleps. Do you know what time the baseball game starts?" Before 24 hours had passed, the subject matter of numerous texts exchanged between Aaron and Brittni Colleps took a dramatic turn.
Colleps discussed | 08/15/12 12:35:57 By - Deanna Boyd

Prosecutors in the Jerry Sandusky case had a "great deal" of "highly incriminating" evidence they didn't use at his trial. That's according to what a prosecutor told the judges overseeing the Sandusky case and the grand jury investigation late in June as they were discussing how secret materials were leaked to the media. | 08/15/12 12:29:47 By - Mike Dawson

Texas' prison population has dropped to its lowest in five years, but the decline hasn't been as steep as in some other states, most notably California. | 08/14/12 07:32:44 By - Terry Evans and Anna M. Tinsley

A major fertilizer producer from California’s San Joaquin Valley who pleaded guilty to fraud charges this week ran into what appears to be a newly aggressive federal effort to crack down on organic-farming cheaters. | 08/09/12 17:26:38 By - By Michael Doyle

Country singer Randy Travis faces a charge of driving while intoxicated and retaliation against a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper after he was found naked at the scene of a wreck on a Grayson County road, authorities said Wednesday. | 08/08/12 16:48:45 By - Domingo Ramirez Jr

While other people watch reality shows, a marketing specialist in Michigan who goes by the name "Bcclist" spends time in his yard, calculating Trayvon Martins last steps with a tape measure and smartphone stop watch. | 08/06/12 06:52:48 By - Frances Robles

Just when crime in Rock Hill didnt seem it could get any worse, a villain drops to ugly depths uncharted in seas of maiming, shooting, stealing. thief stole $70 from a kid with cancer. | 08/03/12 12:57:32 By - Andrew Dys

A new Texas online database of patient prescription drug information will help authorities identify traffickers and people who "doctor shop" for medications, state officials say. | 08/03/12 12:22:47 By - Alex Branch

For years  decades, really  Miami-Dade homeowners have been ducking property taxes by illegally claiming homestead exemptions, usually with impunity. But these days, gambling on getting caught is a fools game. | 07/30/12 14:00:40 By -

The Clery Act seems simple enough: Colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs  more than 6,000 schools nationwide  must let students and others know about crimes reported on their campuses. But Penn State, in one of its many failings in the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse case, largely ignored the campus-safety law, according to former FBI director Louis Freehs report. | 07/30/12 13:45:07 By - Mara Rose Williams

For nearly six years, Mary's husband cursed her, beat her, stole her money and threatened to kill her. So when she decided to leave him for good last month, she said, she was dismayed to discover that all the domestic violence shelters in Dallas County, Texas, were full. | 07/27/12 15:09:02 By - Susan Schrock

Dottie Sandusky says she still loves her husband. The wife of convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky remains loyal to and supportive of the man who is now housed in the Centre County Correctional Facility awaiting sentencing | 07/27/12 14:54:07 By - Mike Dawson

The senseless murders of two Platte County sisters last week became somewhat easier to comprehend when authorities said the confessed killer was high on methamphetamines at the time. The senseless murders of two Platte County sisters last week became somewhat easier to comprehend when authorities said the confessed killer was high on methamphetamines at the time. Few illicit drugs provoke the kind of paranoia and rage that leads to such violence as meth.

Few illicit drugs provoke the kind of paranoia and rage that leads to such violence as meth. | 07/23/12 16:13:34 By - Mike Hendricks

After saying he did not regret any of his actions the night he killed Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman backtracked and apologized to America Wednesday night in his first interview since the shooting that polarized the nation nearly five months ago. | 07/19/12 07:40:38 By - By Frances Robles

Ruth Charles could not find a Haitian church in Miami to hold a funeral for her son, Rudy Eugene. The news of Eugenes death on Memorial Day weekend was already too well known. He was shot to death by Miami police as he crouched over Ronald Poppos limp body, naked and growling, chewing off chunks of the mans face. At 31, the son who had carried a Bible, quoted scripture and worn a four-inch cross on a chain around his neck had become something unrecognizable, known across the nation as the Miami zombie. | 07/16/12 13:28:48 By - Nadege Green and Audra D.S. Burch

Despite a last-minute rush to the courthouse to file a motion to delay a courts ruling, the Duval County State Attorney on Monday released a recorded statement from a woman who says George Zimmerman molested her when they were both children -- beginning when she just six years old. | 07/16/12 13:19:24 By - Frances Robles

The details that emerged from the report also show how the provisions of Jerry Sandusky's retirement, such as access to facilities and the association he asked for between the university and The Second Mile, played a role in the sex crimes of which he was convicted last month. | 07/16/12 07:36:18 By - By Mike Dawson

Floridas controversial Stand Your Ground law continues to enjoy widespread support among likely voters, even as a state task force considers rewriting the law, according to a new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll. | 07/16/12 07:01:06 By - By Toluse Olorunnipa

A man who fled Fayette, Ky. Circuit Court just before a jury found him guilty of rape and sodomy Thursday is a decorated Army veteran who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to court records. | 07/13/12 15:50:15 By - Josh Kegley

Richard David McClanahan served 30 months in federal prison for his lies, a lengthy penalty imposed because he also lied about his income to buy a pickup from a dealership. Now living in Fort Worth, the 34-year-old ex-convict has a chance to have at least part of his conviction overturned after the Supreme Court's decision. | 07/13/12 07:32:17 By - By Chris Vaughn

After interviewing nearly three dozen people in the George Zimmerman murder case, the FBI found no evidence that racial bias was a motivating factor in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, records released Thursday show. | 07/12/12 11:59:11 By - Frances Robles and Scott Hiaason

Wayne Treacy, the Pompano Beach teenager charged with attempted first-degree murder for brutally beating and nearly killing a Deerfield Beach Middle School student in March 2010, began his insanity defense in Broward Criminal Court on Wednesday, with defense attorneys calling to the witness stand a forensic psychologist who testified that the boy suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological problems. | 07/12/12 07:30:52 By - By Daniel Chang

The criminal trial is over. Now, the community is waiting for the second verdict. Penn State hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to complete what trustees have said is an independent investigation into the universitys response to the Jerry Sandusky scandal and whether it included a cover-up of behavior that turned out to be a pattern of child sex abuse. | 07/10/12 07:30:12 By - Anne Danahy

When Buddy Persaud promised his investors the moon and the stars, he wasnt kidding. Persaud, an Orlando Florida-based financial broker, believed the markets were affected by lunar cycles and gravitational pull. When  surprise, surprise  the heavens failed him, Persaud paid out their promised high rates of return (up to 18 percent) by simply recruiting new investors and using their funds to pay off the old ones, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges. | 07/09/12 11:18:58 By -

In a depressed economy in which traditional jobs are hard to come by, landing a work-from-home job must seem like a real stroke of luck. Who wouldn't want to make extra spending money on his or her own time without having to travel to an office, sit in rush-hour traffic or even put on pants? | 07/09/12 11:13:49 By - Josh Kegley

In a depressed economy in which traditional jobs are hard to come by, landing a work-from-home job must seem like a real stroke of luck. Who wouldn't want to make extra spending money on his or her own time without having to travel to an office, sit in rush-hour traffic or even put on pants? | 07/09/12 07:08:45 By - Josh Kegley

The judge overseeing George Zimmermans murder trial wrote a stern eight-page order Thursday that set bail at $1 million and said the former neighborhood watch volunteer thumbed his nose at the judicial system as he plotted a life on the run. | 07/06/12 06:57:51 By - Frances Robles

Jesse Mactagone lived in a sea of camouflage, with handcrafted model tanks and planes adorning his bedroom. He left home in Auburn last August, energized to attend St. John's Military School for Boys in Kansas. He lasted four days. | 07/05/12 06:53:38 By - Andrea Gallo

The family of Joe Paterno wants the state Attorney Generals Office and the team Penn State hired to investigate the Jerry Sandusky scandal to release all emails and records related to the case. | 07/03/12 07:20:23 By - Anne Danahy

Miami authorities say a fence for stolen diamonds who calls himself Tony Montana didnt know he was dealing with undercover cops when he dug himself a deeper hole by soliciting their help in other criminal enterprises. | 07/02/12 14:02:21 By - Melissa Sanchez

A child whose neglect had brought her into contact with Missouri state social workers and family court officials, who had been treated at a hospital for malnutrition and who had attended school, had been all but forgotten. Until the call. | 07/02/12 13:25:51 By - Laura Bauer and Dawn Bormann

Bruce Huntley has a good excuse for the one that got away. The Ferndale resident was fishing on Washington's Lake Padden a few weeks ago when he felt the wind on his head and heard the ruffle of feathers above him. | 07/02/12 12:36:45 By - Zoe Fraley

Guma Aguiar, the Fort Lauderdale multimillionaire who went fishing nine days ago and never returned, may have staged his own disappearance to escape possible bankruptcy, his deteriorating marriage and a mountain of legal troubles, including accusations that he had illegally hacked into his uncles computer. | 06/29/12 13:32:44 By - Julie K. Brown

Trayvon Martin's parents are expected in Sanford Friday at the second bond hearing for their son's killer. Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester will decide Friday whether to let 28 year old former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman out on bond. | 06/29/12 07:14:27 By - Frances Robles

The Carolinas heat wave is being accompanied by telephone and social media messages that the Obama administration has a new program to pay peoples utility bills. Its a scam, Duke Energy officials say. | 06/29/12 07:11:44 By - Steve Lyttle

Centre County Office of Probation workers soon will begin putting together Jerry Sanduskys presentence investigation, a report that will aid the judge in sentencing the former Penn State defensive coach. | 06/28/12 07:18:42 By - Mike Dawson

Three of Jerry Sanduskys victims want a judge to stop the charity founded by Sandusky from transferring $2.5 million to a Texas organization as part of its plan to close for good. | 06/27/12 07:19:18 By - Mike Dawson

Matt Sandusky told police that his adoptive father, Jerry Sandusky, molested him, rubbing him in bed. NBC obtained a recording of a police interview with Matt Sandusky, whom prosecutors planned to call as a witness. Segments of the interview are on the Web. | 06/26/12 14:03:23 By -

Police and prosecutors arrested four alleged pimps Monday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into a ring of human traffickers who preyed on abused and neglected children in foster care. | 06/26/12 13:11:10 By - Carol Marbin Miller

In an apartment that reeked of urine, a Kansas City police officer called out. Is anyone in here? Neighbors had said not a soul was home. But a tiny voice answered from a barricaded closet. Yes. | 06/25/12 13:37:30 By - Dawn Bormann

The young men who were abused by Jerry Sandusky were clear on the stand that it took time to open up to police investigating the former coach of sexually abusing young boys. | 06/25/12 07:29:05 By - Mike Dawson

Corrections officers at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater in California and six other tension-racked federal prisons now will be armed with pepper spray, prompted in part by a 2008 murder that still haunts a California court. | 06/22/12 16:36:36 By - By Michael Doyle

Jurors in the Jerry Sandusky case broke their deliberation late Thursday night after telling the judge they wanted to listen to the two-hour testimony of Mike McQueary. | 06/22/12 07:16:04 By - Mike Dawson and Anne Danahy

Jerry Sanduskys attorney told jurors there was a chain reaction of events, starting with one boy and a story that spiraled into an effort by police to show that the former Penn State football coach is a serial pedophile, and that attorneys could profit from it. | 06/21/12 15:08:49 By - Anne Danahy

The prosecution in the Jerry Sandusky case mocked the defense's "grand conspiracy theory" and said the case is proved by the testimony from eight young men, which shows Sandusky exhibited the range of grooming behavior of a "serial predatory pedophile." | 06/21/12 15:03:19 By - Mike Dawson

Senior Judge John Cleland told jurors in the Jerry Sandusky trial that while some behavior  including oral sex between a man and a boy  is obviously a crime, other behavior is more ambiguous. | 06/21/12 10:18:29 By - Anne Danahy

The Sanford police chief who failed to arrest George Zimmerman immediately after the fatal shooting of Miami-Dade teen Trayvon Martin four months ago  and brought national attention and derision to the Central Florida city  has been terminated. | 06/21/12 08:20:35 By - Meredith Rutland

Ten weeks. Some 250 hours. More than 4,000 pages of testimony. Forty witnesses. Over 300 exhibits and 100 pages of instructions.
And now the verdict is in: Narcy Novack and her brother Cristobal Veliz were found guilty of at least two counts of murder and racketeering in connection with the grisly 2009 murders of her husband, Ben Novack Jr., and his mother, Bernice Novack, heirs to the Fontainebleau hotel fortune. | 06/20/12 13:03:06 By - Julie K Brown

During an interview with an alleged Jerry Sandusky victim, a state trooper told the victim that oral sex and rape had occurred between Sandusky and other victims, and he encouraged him to talk about what had happened to him, according to testimony this morning. | 06/19/12 13:04:17 By - Anne Danahy

An Anchorage jury convicted Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox and two of his confederates on most of the charges they faced, leaving them looking at the possibility of long prison terms when they are sentenced in September. Federal prosecutors charged Cox, 28, Coleman Barney, 37, and Lonnie Vernon, 56, with amassing illegal weapons and with threatening the lives of law enforcement officials and judges | 06/19/12 12:58:37 By -

A Kansas City businessman awaiting sentencing for providing support to al Qaida was part of a small terror cell with two New York men, federal officials said Monday. | 06/19/12 07:12:46 By - Mark Morris

The defense began calling character witnesses today in the child sex abuse trial of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, beginning with two men who were assistant football coaches with Sandusky at Penn State. | 06/18/12 14:59:09 By - Mike Dawson

A husband and wife arrested in Lawrence after two of their children were discovered bound and blindfolded outside a Walmart were charged Thursday in Douglas County District Court. | 06/15/12 14:00:10 By - Katy Bergen

After the jury departed for the deliberation room Thursday and the alternate jurors were dismissed, after the ratcheting of handcuffs signaled all three defendants were on the way back to jail, and after most of the courtroom spectators had returned to their routines, Marti Cox lingered with a small pack of reporters to try to explain why her husband Schaeffer wasn't the wacko militia caricature that emerged over five weeks of trial. | 06/15/12 12:59:51 By - Richard Mauer

Jurors in the Jerry Sandusky trial are hearing from witnesses who’ve struggled at times to recount the sexual abuses they say happened to them as children, a personally painful but legally necessary outpouring. | 06/14/12 19:12:30 By - By Curtis Tate

Two more alleged victims took the stand this morning in the trial of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Both said they had met Sandusky through The Second Mile. | 06/14/12 13:20:57 By - Mike Dawson and Matt Carroll

John McQueary Sr. testified this morning that he doesnt remember testifying in Harrisburg in a perjury case against two former Penn State administrators about his son saying he saw Jerry Sandusky in an extremely sexual situation with a young boy in a shower. | 06/13/12 12:08:39 By - Mike Dawson

In his opening statement, Jerry Sandusky's defense attorney, Joe Amendola, urged the jury hearing the child sex-abuse case against the former Penn State coach to "keep an open mind" and "wait until all the evidence is in." | 06/12/12 20:58:06 By - Anne Danahy and Chip Minemyer

BELLEFONTE  A young man from Clinton County who once thought of Jerry Sandusky as a role model froze with panic the first time Sandusky performed a sex act on him, the young man said during tearful testimony Tuesday. WARNING: GRAPHIC SEXUAL TESTIMONY | 06/12/12 20:57:45 By - Mike Dawson

Mike McQueary didnt back off his story Tuesday. Before the eyes of a jury, he was adamant that when he walked into a Penn State athletics building shower he saw Jerry Sandusky naked with a young boy in a shower in a position that was extremely sexual. | 06/12/12 20:57:11 By - Anne Danahy and Matt Carroll

Opening arguments begin today in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse trial. Fans of legal drama are excited that Centre Countys main courtroom has been reserved for a month for whats being billed as one of biggest trials in the nation this year, but local residents cant wait for the whole ordeal to be over. | 06/11/12 07:18:51 By - Cliff White and Matt Carroll

More than two years of investigation and a six-week trial subjected the actions of presidential candidate John Edwards in 2007 and 2008 to unsparing scrutiny, revealing such intimate details as the likely conception date of his out-of-wedlock daughter and a hotel scene of his mistress in her nightie. | 06/11/12 07:12:14 By - Anne Blythe and John Frank

The world is calling Rudy Eugene, who chewed off a homeless mans face, a cannibal  but an autopsy shows there was no human flesh in his stomach. The post-death examination did reveal a number of undigested pills in his stomach, but investigators have not identified them yet, a law-enforcement source told The Miami Herald. | 06/11/12 06:49:54 By - David Ovalle

A 25-year-old Anchorage woman doused her boyfriend with gasoline as he slept on the couch and set it ablaze, killing him, according to a criminal accusation by Anchorage police. | 06/11/12 06:37:49 By - Lisa Demer

Somewhere between the story of the man who got nailed by the Metrorail while hanging a Marlins banner on the track and the tale of a chef who bled out from a gunshot to the groin, Paul George will tell his audience about the Miami cannibal. | 06/08/12 12:34:37 By - Meredith Rutland

A man who said he was under the influence of "bath salts" when he attacked a Biloxi resident during a burglary has been ordered to prison for 27 years.Ricky Dale Reed, 33, of Vancleave, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to burglary of a dwelling and aggravated assault with a knife | 06/07/12 12:24:35 By - Robin Fitzgerald

Eight people with Penn State ties will sit on the jury to determine the fate of Jerry Sandusky, whose defensive coaching strategies helped bring football glory, but whose arrest and trial have linked the universitys name to a child sex abuse scandal. | 06/07/12 07:13:46 By - Mike Dawson

When John Edwards was found not guilty of one count of illegal campaign contributions and the jury could not reach a decision on the other five counts, the jurys uncertainty of Edwards guilt paralleled the publics uncertainty of the politicians future in the spotlight. | 06/05/12 07:33:59 By - Deborah Strange

An argument over groceries is getting the blame for an altercation Sunday in Gastonia in which a man says a woman beat him with her prosthetic leg -- and tore out her dialysis tube when she got out of her wheelchair during the dispute. | 06/04/12 13:08:34 By - Steve Lyttle

With his deadline looming, George Zimmerman turned himself over to authorities on Sunday in another legal drama surrounding the man accused of shooting Trayvon Martin in a death that continues to galvanize the nation. | 06/04/12 07:03:19 By - Michael Sallah

The Second Mile, the charity for at-risk youth that Jerry Sandusky founded and the alleged pipeline through which the former Penn State coach met and abused young boys, will fold because of dwindling donor support. | 05/25/12 13:42:40 By - Mike Dawson and Anne Danahy

The Justice Department's internal watchdog office has concluded that two federal prosecutors acted with reckless misconduct in the botched case against then-Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and should be suspended without pay but not fired. | 05/25/12 06:54:10 By - Sean Cockerham

The confidential informant who brought down the Fairbanks militia leadership finished his testimony in federal court Wednesday, admitting under oath that his work as a drug-hauling Alaska trucker years ago was as an initiate for the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. | 05/24/12 06:46:39 By - Richard Mauer

A year before George Zimmerman killed a Miami Gardens teenager, he stood before a City Hall community forum with a grievance: Sanford cops are lazy, he told the then-mayor elect. | 05/23/12 16:21:24 By - Frances Robles

Jerry Sanduskys trial on sex abuse charges will go forward in June as planned. Senior Judge John Cleland denied on Monday the defenses request for a delay and did not give a reason for his decision, which came 12 days after defense attorney Joe Amendola asked for more time. | 05/23/12 07:26:03 By - Mike Dawson and Anne Danahy

The threats by Fairbanks militia members to the lives of law enforcement officials and their families came under sharp focus in a federal courtroom Tuesday when secretly recorded conversations revealed the origins of the infamous "241" plan for murder. | 05/23/12 06:46:08 By - Richard Mauer

John Edwards might be the one with the most to win or lose with the jury deliberating his fate, but the U.S. Department of Justice has a lot riding on his case, too. | 05/22/12 07:15:54 By - Anne Blythe

In a planning session for his security at a television interview in North Pole, Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox told a squad of paramilitary volunteers to be ready to shoot to kill, according to a secretly recorded conversation played in court Monday. | 05/22/12 06:37:19 By - Richard Mauer

The attorney for Jerry Sandusky is again asking the judge to throw out the charges, this time less than three weeks before the case that has garnered national attention is scheduled to go to trial here in Centre County. | 05/17/12 11:08:18 By - Mike Dawson

Jurors at the trial of Schaeffer Cox heard from two men who had followed the young, charismatic militia leader in Fairbanks, one who came to reject him as a power-hungry "Napoleon" and another who still considers him to be his commander. | 05/17/12 06:49:45 By - Richard Mauer

A Miami-Dade fire captain has been demoted down to firefighter as punishment for a rant, posted on his personal Facebook page, about the Trayvon Martin case, county officials said Monday. | 05/15/12 06:58:19 By - Diana Moskovitz

Its not clear if he sang a rendition of Jailhouse Rock, but an Elvis impersonator on the Grand Strand spent nearly 12 hours in jail Wednesday after a fracas over a board game. | 05/10/12 17:49:18 By - Tonya Root

California led the country in cyber-crime complaints and dollar losses to victims last year, according to a study released today by the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership of the FBI, National White Collar Crime Center and the U.S. Dept. of Justice. | 05/10/12 17:33:10 By - Claudia Buck

As the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case nears jury selection June 5, some of his attorneys requests for materials to build a defense apparently are getting closer to being resolved. | 05/10/12 07:25:32 By - Mike Dawson

The weapons and conspiracy trial of three Fairbanks militia members continued into its third day Wednesday with the introduction of seized guns, ammunition and documents, some brought into the federal courthouse, others as pictures projected on a big screen. | 05/10/12 06:44:05 By - Richard Mauer

A North Carolina judge on Wednesday ruled that the murder conviction in 2003 of Durham novelist Michael Peterson was obtained with "materially misleading" and "deliberately false" testimony from a State Bureau of Investigation agent who was the most crucial witness in a case that spawned TV movies, books and a film. | 05/09/12 16:44:48 By - By J. Andrew Curliss

A prosecutor in the Jerry Sandusky case inadvertently released the names of some alleged victims in a document posted but then removed from Centre Countys website. | 05/09/12 07:17:45 By - Mike Dawson

The trial of three Fairbanks militia members opened in U.S. District Court Tuesday with prosecutors describing them as dangerous armed terrorists plotting to murder Alaskans in authority, and defense attorneys saying their ideas may seem wacky, but they are not threatening. | 05/09/12 06:41:13 By - Richard Mauer

Prosecutors in the Jerry Sandusky case are now saying the infamous incident when Mike McQueary walked in on Jerry Sandusky in a shower with a boy  the one that ultimately led to Joe Paternos firing and criminal charges against two university administrators  happened in 2001, not 2002. | 05/08/12 07:19:25 By - Mike Dawson

The five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks used their weekend war court appearances to stage peaceful resistance to an unjust system being used for political reasons, defense lawyers said Sunday  a day after the 9/11accused turned the judges plans to hold a simple arraignment into a 13-hour marathon of prayer and protest. | 05/06/12 16:53:32 By - By Carol Rosenberg

Why is this so hard? the judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, declared in exasperation afters hours in which the alleged co-conspirators refused to answer his questions and read while the proceeding took place. The hearing for the five defendants was prolonged by the insistence of one that the charges against him be read aloud and by interruptions for prayer. | 05/05/12 22:30:32 By - By Carol Rosenberg

Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators put on a defiant show at their war court arraignment Saturday, refusing to listen to the proceedings through a headset, causing at least an hour-long stalemate. | 05/05/12 10:44:14 By - By Carol Rosenberg

Two years ago, thieves pulled off a brazen heist of about $80 million worth of prescription drugs from an Eli Lilly warehouse in Connecticut  the largest theft in that states history. Turns out, there was a Miami connection  a big one. | 05/04/12 13:02:26 By - Jay Weaver

Jerry Sanduskys defense strategy is becoming clearer. His attorney, Joe Amendola, argues that the young men whove accused the former Penn State defensive coach of abuse conspired together for financial gain. | 05/04/12 07:29:29 By - Mike Dawson

The shocking and tragic death of a Florida A&M University band member last November, which provoked an outcry in Florida and nationwide over the longstanding practice of campus hazing, culminated Wednesday when prosecutors filed charges  although none for murder  against 13 suspects. | 05/03/12 06:54:42 By - Toluse Olorunnipa

A Bluffton Middle School teacher is accused of grabbing a seventh-grader by his shirt collar, forcing him under a desk and telling him, "This is what the Nazis do to Jews," according to the Bluffton Police Department. | 05/01/12 07:27:49 By - Allison Stice

Kenneth Chamberlain Jr.s foray into activism started with a Facebook post. Someone placed a petition demanding the arrest of Trayvon Martins killer on Chamberlains Facebook wall, and that got the New York behavior counselor thinking: What about his own dads unprosecuted killing? | 05/01/12 06:48:22 By - Frances Robles

When President George W. Bush proposed razing Iraqs Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, this American Army judge declared it a crime scene and forbade its demolition. When five years later President Barack Obama asked the Guantánamo war court to freeze all proceedings, the same judge refused the brand-new commander-in-chiefs request. | 04/30/12 07:14:52 By - Carol Rosenberg

The International Criminal Court has completed only one trial since it was created 10 years ago to prosecute the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. That’s raised questions about whether the court, born in the wake of atrocities in Bosnia and Rwanda, is the best way to stop genocide. | 04/25/12 19:28:19 By - By Roy Gutman

Michelle Brademeyer says Transportation Security Administration officers at Wichitas airport treated her 4-year-old daughter like a terrorist. The TSA says its officers followed proper procedures, and the agency denies part of Brademeyers version of what happened around noon April 15 at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. | 04/25/12 18:31:45 By - Tim Potter

First, a woman accused Mark and Rhonda Lesher and one of their employees of raping her. Then, the same woman and her husband, along with two of their employees, instigated an online smear campaign. On Friday, three years after a Collin County jury acquitted the Leshers and their employee of aggravated sexual assault, a Tarrant County jury awarded the couple $13.78 million in a libel judgment. | 04/25/12 17:27:33 By -

The Joe Paterno estate is receiving $5.76 million in retirement benefits and payments from Penn State, according to information the university released to the CDT Thursday. | 04/20/12 13:14:43 By - Anne Danahy

George Zimmernman will be eligible for release from jail on $150,000 bail and a host of conditions including electronic monitoring, Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester announced Friday. | 04/20/12 11:14:28 By - Audra D.S. Burch

An Anchorage-based hunting guide accused of illegally shooting moose, leaving them to rot and then using their carcasses as bait for his clients' brown bear hunts is facing new charges in federal court. | 04/20/12 06:46:17 By - Casey Grove

On June 5, 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Salt Lake City. Over the next nine months she was repeatedly raped by her captor before being rescued. | 04/19/12 12:46:57 By - Amy Coyne Bredeson

A self-employed Anchorage carpenter police linked to the abduction of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig is now charged in her disappearance and slaying, according to a grand jury indictment. | 04/19/12 12:43:34 By - Casey Grove

Two Eastern Kentucky women have become the first people in the nation convicted under the federal hate-crimes law of helping assault someone because of the victim's sexual orientation. | 04/17/12 07:09:13 By - Bill Estep

Last-minute filers have more to worry about than meeting todays deadline to file taxes. Many are likely to learn that someone else has beat them to the punch: identity thieves. | 04/17/12 06:55:10 By - Daniel Chang

Federal agents seized 22 guns, bulletproof vests and nearly $150,000 in cash from the home of the Arlington strip club owner arrested this week in an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting Mayor Robert Cluck and an attorney who represents the city, according to court documents. | 04/13/12 14:03:27 By - Susan Schrock and Mitch Mitchell

Federal authorities have shut down a major drug-trafficking operation that mailed large quantities of marijuana from several Arlington post offices to St. Croix, Justice Department officials announced Thursday. | 04/13/12 07:18:58 By - Domingo Ramirez Jr.

The neighborhood watchman who shot and killed Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin will remain in jail while awaiting formal arraignment on a charge of second-degree murder, a Seminole County judge ordered during a brief, first-appearance hearing Thursday afternoon.
George Zimmerman, 28, appeared at the hearing, handcuffed and dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit, and said little except to indicate he understood his right to remain silent and the proceeding, which was presided over by Judge Mark E. Herr. | 04/12/12 14:09:36 By - Toluse Olorunnipa, Frances Robles and Daniel Chang

No more TV interviews for Jerry Sanduskys attorney, Joe Amendola. No more of the prosecution blasting the defense in front of reporters on the steps of the Centre County Courthouse. The attorneys for the alleged victims are limited in what they can say, too. | 04/11/12 07:27:16 By - Mike Dawson

The Justice Department revealed descriptions of hundreds of documents Monday night that it had prepared in its investigation of Rep. Don Young and the infamous Coconut Road interchange, including what it said was a "potential witness list and indictment." | 04/11/12 06:46:47 By - Richard Mauer

In a stunning twist to one of China's biggest scandals in decades, state media confirmed Tuesday that Bo Xilai, once seen as a rising political star, has been suspended from his seat on the nation's politburo and his wife is a suspect in the killing of a British businessman. | 04/10/12 12:21:15 By - By Tom Lasseter

A Macon woman was arrested early Easter morning on allegations she stabbed her husband in the genitals with a screwdriver and struck him in the face and head with a wrench, according to Macon police. | 04/09/12 15:22:45 By - Amy Leigh Womack

The special prosecutor assigned to investigate the Trayvon Martin case will not be using a grand jury to determine whether to arrest George Zimmerman, her office confirmed Monday morning. | 04/09/12 13:51:02 By - Toluse Olorunnipa

Iraqi-born translator Alaa "Alex" Ali never served in the U.S. military, but the Army still tried him and put him in jail. Now the amendment that made Ali's military prosecution possible, authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., could be one step closer to Supreme Court review. Whatever happens next will affect myriad U.S. contractors still working in Iraq and Afghanistan. | 04/06/12 18:41:00 By - Michael Doyle

Three of the biggest oil companies in the country have agreed to settle lawsuits accusing them of profiting from hot fuel  gasoline and diesel sold without adjusting the volume for temperature. | 04/06/12 13:26:36 By - Steve Everly

The hearing in the Jerry Sandusky case Thursday that was expected go on for an hour or more, addressing a series of pre-trial motions, was brief and ended without either side presenting arguments. | 04/06/12 07:12:05 By - Mike Dawson

Penn State trustees and Gov. Tom Corbett are disputing an ESPN report that paints a picture of the governor orchestrating the decision to dismiss Joe Paterno as coach, insisting Corbett did not tell the board what to do. | 04/05/12 07:22:45 By - Anne Danahy and Mike Dawson

While protests and rallies continued in Miami and Tallahassee demanding murder charges in the Trayvon Martin case, the teens shooter bolstered his legal defense by hiring another veteran attorney to represent him. | 04/05/12 06:59:22 By - Frances Robles and Toluse Olorunnipa

The judge presiding over the Jerry Sandusky case will hear oral arguments, including the defenses motion to dismiss all the charges, as part of a hearing scheduled for Thursday morning. | 04/04/12 07:20:34 By - Mike Dawson

Lisa Irwins bedroom looks about the same as it did six months ago, when the Northland toddler disappeared. Stuffed animals line her empty crib. Photos and other items adorn the walls. | 04/04/12 07:13:22 By - Glenn E. Rice

A Mississippi traveling evangelist who often spoke to Texas youth groups -- including several times at a Southlake church -- is accused of secretly filming women and girls as young as 17 as they undressed in bathrooms, police agencies said. | 04/03/12 07:20:34 By - Darren Barbee

The former prosecutor assigned to the Trayvon Martin case participated in a suspicious meeting with police on the night of the disputed shooting, Martins family alleged on Monday. | 04/03/12 06:49:37 By - Michael Vasquez